Former President Bill Clinton barnstormed North Carolina Friday and ended his seven-city tour at Asheville High School’s gymnasium, where he told a cheering crowd why he thought Hillary Clinton, his wife, is the best choice for president.
Clinton arrived on stage about 9:30 and spoke for more than an hour. Clinton began his talk by quoting Asheville’s native son Thomas Wolfe and told that the crowd that he and his family spent a memorable family vacation at the Grove Park Inn in 1987. Then he launched into a detailed discourse on Hillary Clinton’s platform and experience while pacing the stage set with blue curtains and a large American flag as a backdrop.
On everything from the war in Iraq to health care to the economy, Bill Clinton said his wife was the best choice for president. Clinton mentioned the presumptive Republican nominee for president, U.S. Sen. John McCain, by name several times while never mentioning the name of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.
Hillary Clinton and Obama are in a tight race to win their party’s nomination to run for president, with both candidates gearing up their campaigns in the Tar Heel state in advance of the May 6 primary election.
Friday night as the sun set, thousands of people stood patiently in a line that wrapped around the high school campus on McDowell Avenue. Some waited for hours for a chance to see the former president, and brought political signs, books and even a baseball to be autographed. Other’s sported red-white-and-blue Hillary ‘08 T-shirts. At the end of his speech, the crowd on the gym floor pressed forward as Clinton worked the crowd, shaking hands, signing his name and posing for photos with excited supporters.
Click on the link below to listen to Bill Clinton talk about the war in Iraq.
— Jason Sandford, multimedia editor
Come on Jason, it’s spelled Barack… I know its not as familiar as John or Bill, but by now you should know how to spell it.
Is it Obama or Ubama?
Well, they got enough Hillery supporters to fill a High School gym. I’m impressed.How many of the ladies got to sit on Bill’s lap? Now, I am guessing a lot of men would like to have ladies sit on their laps but I’m pretty sure my wife wouldn’t have a litany of excuses for it.
Ahhh, spelling corrected – thanks Jason.
travelah sounds like your jealous? intelligence deficient are you?
southern, I am certainly jealous of your English composition skills.
timpuck, it’s “osama”.
Hey yous vote for Hillary. She can win and Barak Hussein Osama Obama cannot win. He’s as useless as Ron Paul. Vote for Hillary Clinton May 6!
Thank goodness that xenophobic bigots like Vinnie Tomatoes are a small minority here. Bigoted comments like his only serve to bolster the support of the best qualified candidate by far, Barack Obama.
Hillary and her supporters should be extremely ashamed of her campaign’s concerted effort to fan the flames of racial tensions in their effort to polarize people along racial lines in order to squeeze a few extra votes out of resentful white people like Vinnie Tomatoes.